The Urban Wood Network (UWN) appreciates your interest and would like to invite you to join us.

Free membership is being offered through May 31, 2018.

UWN partners have been dedicated to building urban wood businesses since the early 2000’s and united to promote and demonstrate urban wood utilization. Our mission is to inform, collaborate, and connect to build business and consumer confidence in the urban wood industry. Firstly, joining the urban wood movement means becoming a valuable link in the urban wood supply chain. And secondly, it means connecting with other efforts around the country. The more we position the industry as a cohesive group, the greater awareness we can bring to urban wood utilization and the better access we can provide to those who want to grow with it.

The Urban Wood Network is committed to work in partnership with the full diversity of industry stakeholders to build a common understanding, language, commitment, and eventually, brand for the urban wood marketplace.

If you currently belong to another organization whose primary goal is promoting urban wood utilization, we are interested in that organization partnering with us and becoming an UWN member. You would then be a part of UWN through that organization. If there isn’t such an organization in your state, then we welcome you as an UWN member and will assist you in building an organization in your state.

What does membership involve? To be an UWN member simply sign the attached agreement, if you agree with the tenets in the agreement. Because of the funding we have received from a USDA Forest Service grant, we are able to offer UWN membership at no cost through 6/30/18. UWN will continue to work on developing our network, organizational structure, dues structure, sponsorships, and member benefits with the plan to have UWN fully functional as a service organization by then.

UrbanWoodExchange.org fosters creation of local networks to utilize felled community trees for lumber and wood products whenever possible.

Raleigh, NC — The Southeast Urban Wood Exchange continues to enroll a growing number of forest and wood product professionals who share the goal of putting urban tree removals to their highest possible use.

UrbanWoodExchange.org is a new clearinghouse for businesses ranging from professional tree care and removal services through sawyers, kiln dryers and lumber suppliers to connect and grow local urban wood networks. The Exchange features a searchable database that makes it easier for businesses to find potential urban wood partners in their area.

North Carolina has served as the pilot project of the new website created to encompass the 13 states located within the U.S. Forest Service Southern Region 8. Already dozens of businesses throughout North Carolina have posted business and product listings on the Exchange.

Underwritten through a grant from the U.S. Forest Service, qualified businesses can quickly list their products and services for free by logging onto UrbanWoodExchange.org. Product listings include Cut Logs, Milled Lumber and Firewood/Chips. Service listings include Arborists, Sawyers, Kiln Operators and Lumber Sellers.

An underlying mission of the Southeast Urban Wood Exchange is helping to facilitate the highest and best possible use of community trees at the end of their service. These trees are felled due to old age, insect infestation, storm damage, utility excavation and other circumstances. They are never meant to be removed solely for their wood value.

“Not every tree that is removed in the urban forest can yield lumber,” said Nancy Stairs, Ur”ban Forestry Program Coordinator of the North Carolina Forest Service (NCFS). “Yet, too many trees that could be milled are ending up in a landfill. The Southeast Urban Wood Exchange aims to help divert as many logs as possible and feasible from the waste stream by promoting the opportunity to convert them into value-added products. In some cases that means lumber or slabs, in others the best possible use is firewood or mulch. In any regard, better utilizing this resource is not only good for the environment, but for growing local economies.

“We hope and strongly encourage all businesses with a stake in the Southeast’s urban forests to get listed on the Exchange,” said added. “Working together we can build markets that offer woodworkers a unique source of wood supply and make it easier for environmentally-conscious private and public landowners to find professionals who can give trees that must come down a new life as furniture and other wood products.”

To learn more about Southeast Urban Wood Exchange and posting free business and product listings, visit UrbanWoodExchange.org.

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About the Urban Wood Exchange The Southeast Urban Wood Exchange is a free online directory of urban wood products and services administered by the North Carolina Forest Service.s Urban & Community Forestry Program and funded through the U.S. Forest Service Southern Region 8. Region 8 encompasses the following 13 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. For more information visit UrbanWoodExchange.org

The Virginia Department of Forestry in partnership with the Virginia Urban Wood Group, Trees Virginia, and U.S. Forest Service, is proud to sponsor the Mid-Atlantic Urban Wood Forum: “Applied Practices in Utilization,” Aug. 15-16 in Richmond, VA. Thetwo-day event will take place at the Richmond Marriott Short Pump.

It will feature a host of urban wood experts from across the United States providing techniques and examples of successful urban wood utilization programs and projects from government, associations and entrepreneurs. Among the speakers is Jessica Simons, lead of Michigan’s Urban Wood Marketplace. Michigan is a partner in the Bringing the Urban Forest Full Circle project will Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin collectively known as the Urban Wood Network

Crystal Falls, MI — The Urban Wood Network, a multi-state collaborative project that is promoting full-circle urban forest management, announces the launch of its new website: urbanwoodnetwork.org. The website serves as an industry resource for those interested in: adding urban wood to their existing business model; starting a new company dedicated to urban wood; joining a statewide network for urban wood providers; or starting a new network in their state.

The Urban Wood Network is made up of urban forestry efforts in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Wisconsin, working collaboratively to capture the full worth of community trees from seed to sawdust. This often means expanding the public benefits of urban trees, from shade to finished wood products.

Urban wood, which is wood processed from felled urban and community trees, can be used for a wide range of products. Any piece of wood that can produce lumber can be used for a broad range of general and specialty use products from flooring to one piece table tops. Lesser quality wood can be used for playground/trail chips, mulch, firewood, or pulpwood. The Urban Wood Network always promotes the highest use that is economically achievable.

“We’ve learned from experience that the only way to have an ultimate impact, to truly establish full circle urban forestry management, is to work cooperatively from arborist to value-added manufacturer,” said Don Peterson, on behalf of the Urban Wood Network. “A cohesive supply chain is the only way to get the highest product from these trees. Now, we want to use our collective experiences to assist other businesses and other states to join this developing industry.”

Keys to Success
Urban wood success stories are a main feature of urbanwoodnetwork.org. The success stories highlight municipalities, arborists, sawmills, suppliers, manufacturers and makers, and design professionals that have put urban trees to better use, and demonstrate the social and economic benefits of doing so.

An interview with Recycle Ann Arbor’s Kirk Lignell tells how the urban wood supplier located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, grew dramatically after the Emerald Ash Borer destroyed local ash trees. Now Recycle Ann Arbor’s urban wood supply chain includes six different sawmills. Customers range from artisans to furniture makers.

The City of Eau Claire success story tells how this municipality partners with local sawmills through a Use Agreement, allowing them access the city’s marshalling yard to recover and utilize removed trees.

Full Circle Grant
In 2014, the four states of the Urban Wood Network received funding support for their project “Bringing Urban Forestry Full Circle: Localized Approaches for Capturing Value and Enhancing Public Benefits of Urban Forests.” Funding is from the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area, State and Private Forestry Landscape Scale Restoration Grant Program.

The project aims to build regional and national awareness of the urban wood market, strengthen the urban wood supply chain, and build a common platform for the urban wood marketplace.

“It is interesting how many partners have been involved over the years, so many people at different levels trying to work together to create a strong market for urban wood products,” said Jessica Simons, on behalf of the Sustainable Resources Alliance in Michigan. “It says a lot about this kind of movement when different agencies, organizations, and businesses are excited to work together to make it happen.”

About the Urban Wood Network
The Urban Wood Network seeks to inform, collaborate, and connect to build community, business and consumer confidence in the urban wood industry. It is made up of individual and organizational efforts in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Wisconsin that have been dedicated to building urban wood awareness since the early 2000s. They are united today to promote and demonstrate urban wood utilization. Learn more at www.urbanwoodnetwork.org

It only represents one paragraph of a 14-page document, yet it’s encouraging to see that the City of Duluth, MN, incorporated urban wood utilization in its Emerald Ash Borer Management Plan originated in July 2015 and finalized in November 2016.

That one small yet significant paragraph reads: “After all bark including ½ inch of sapwood is removed from ash, the wood can be used for lumber. This lumber could be used for park projects including mulching, constructing benches, playground equipment, etc. If ash mulch is to be used, the chips must be chipped at no greater than 1” X 1” in two dimensions.”

Duluth officials started crafting the EAB management knowing that it was just a matter of time before the deadly beetle would invade the area. The first confirmation that the EAB had arrived was in St. Louis County in October 2015.

The ultimate death toll of ash trees in Minnesota is expected to be huge. As the introduction of the management plant notes, “According to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Minnesota has the highest volume of ash trees in the U.S. with almost a billion forestland and urban ash trees. Duluth has about 2,404 boulevard ash trees alone, not including park or privately owned ash.”

Key topics of Duluth’s EAB management plan include:

Monitoring and Inspection

Insecticide Use

Community Outreach

Ash Tree Removal

Ash Wood Disposal

Reforestation and Canopy Replacement

Biological Control

I am constantly amazed that many of the municipal urban forestry plans I skim through focus on tree planting, maintenance and disposal without even a mention of wood utilization. I’d be very interested to learn of other cities that like Duluth that have enacted community tree management plans that actively promote a second life for its ash trees as mulch and lumber.

City Forest Products LLC (CFP), described by its principal as “a new social enterprise that creates value from urban woods,” will host a launch party 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Friday, April 28 at Standing Passengers, 1458 W. Chicago Ave, Chicago.

According to CFP founder Curtis Witek, “Our mission is to revitalize communities through the manufacturing and sale of sustainable products crafted from salvaged urban woods.”

CFP is based in Chicago’s West Town area. Witek is actively seeking local partners engaged in restoration and community development work, including woodworkers and marketers.

In its early stage of development, CFP’s products include accent tables, cutting boards and cheese boards all crafted from wood salvaged from local trees. These products will be sold through CFP’s website and at “various festival events around Chicago.”

CFP pledges to “dedicate 5% of our sales proceeds into a ‘Restoration Fund,’ which we reinvest in on-the-ground ecological restoration and community development projects.”

The launch party is meant to introduce CFP to other urban wood stakeholders. Admission to the celebration is free. Click here to RSVP.

Forest2Market recently posted an interesting article worth a read by all managers of urban wood, landfills and biomass operations.

“Urban Wood Waste: Are You Overlooking a Viable Feedstock?” delves into the potential economic benefits of burning urban wood waste to create power or heat instead of landfilling.

The article states, “Current economics favor funneling wood waste into the market, whether the market is for fuel, mulch or other uses. This is because the disposal of wood waste into a landfill adds zero net value. Rather, introducing wood waste into the market adds value as it can become a feedstock for a biomass power facility, for example.”

The Forest2Market article also looks at reasons for various stakeholders to look at using urban wood waste as biomass. For example, here’s some considerations for a landfill operation to make the shift:

The landfill’s need for daily or intermediate cover (cover dirt is expensive and often difficult to find)

State waste reduction goal credits the landfill might secure by using the wood waste for daily or intermediate cover

A desire to save valuable landfill space for materials which have no alternative disposal options

Horigan Urban Forest Products is owned and operated by the husband-wife team of Bruce and Erika Horigan. The company received the Governor’s Pollution Prevention Award in 2007. Bruce Horigan, a certified arborist since 1979, was honored with a Special Recognition award by the Illinois Arborist Association in 2008 for advancing the cause of wood recycling in the urban environment.

The company mills and dry kilns lumber, slabs and burls. The products are sold to professional woodworkers, hobbyists, consumers and others at its facility at 7255 N. St. Louis in Skokie, IL.

Horigan Urban Forest Products is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. Phone 847-568-1340 or visit the website, where you can also request to receive the company’s newsletter.

The Illinois Urban Wood Utilization Team pays homage to Sawmill Sid, one of our brethren repurposing urban forest trees one log at a time in the Toronto area.

Sawmill Sid, a family-owned business, claims it kept nearly 220,000 cubic feet of urban wood out of the landfill last year. This wood was milled and into lumber, furniture, flooring, beams, and corporate gifts.

Beyond those types of products, Sawmill Sid aims to “to do our part in building sustainable communities. Our goal is to re-purpose our wood products and turn the by-products into biofuel.”

On a closer-to-home reason for being, Sawmill Sid was recognized for contributing wood to build “buddy benches” at all Simcoe County District School Board elementary schools.